Air conditioning and electrical wire distrubting structure



IN V EN TOR.

1 N91 PNO um mnvNl M nw@ @w United States Patent AIR CONDITIONING ANDELECTRICAL WIRE DISTRIBUTING STRUCTURE Richard P. Goemann, PortWashington, N. Y., assigner to H. H. Robertson Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.,a cor- Y poration of Pennsylvania Original application February 24,1954, Serial No. 412,217, now Patent No. 2,729,429, dated January 3,1956. Divided and this application December 9, 1955, Serial No. 552,016

1 Claim. (Cl. 257-8) This invention relates to a novel buildingstructure embodying a multi-cellular load supporting iioor and a novelair distributing and electrical wiring system wherein both heated airand electrical wiring are distributed through selected of the cells ofthe floor.

In general the invention has for an object to provide a buildingstructure of the character described wherein certain of the door cellsare utilized to conduct heated air, certain other floor cells areutilized as electrical wiring conduits and wherein crossover ducts forcarrying heated air and for carrying electrical wiring may be providedextending transversely of and thermally insulated from the wiring andhot air cells of the iloor to reduce to a minimum liability of damage tothe insulation of the electrical Wiring.

With this object in view and such others as may hereinafter appear, theinvention consists in the novel building structure hereinafter describedand particularly defined in the claim at the end of this specification.

In the drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the air conditioning systemshowing the cellular oor embodying both air conducting cells and cellsfor distributing wiring for electrical service;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional detail taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional detail view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

In general the present invention contemplates a building structurewherein provision is made for distributing air through selected cells ofa load supporting cellular tioor and for distributing electrical servicethrough other selected cells of said oor. Crossover ducts for carryingheated air and crossover ducts for electrical wiring are extendedtransversely of said floor cells, and provision is made for thermallyinsulating the hot air cells from the wiring crossover ducts or headers,and for thermally insulating the wiring floor cells from the crossoverducts or headers carrying the heated air.

The present invention is directed to a component of the completemulti-storied and air conditioned structure disclosed in my copendingapplication, Serial No. 412,217, tiled Feb. 24, 1954, now Patent No.2,729,429, dated January 3, 1956, of which the present application is adivision.

As more fully disclosed in application, Serial No. 412,217, theapparatus and system which has been illustrated as embodied in an airconditioning and an air distributing system, particularly in amulti-story building, may under varying conditions of operation servethe several purposes of ventilation, exhausting air from w'ithin thebuilding, for heating a part or all of the building, for cooling a partor all of the building and for general air conditioning purposes. Forconvenience of description the apparatus and system will be at timesreferred to herein as an "air conditioning and distributing system.

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Patented Mar. 17, 1959 work of the building may be limited to theminimum height required to produce a predetermined number of stories ofthe building, each of a predetermined height from oor to ceiling.

The present air conditioning systems for multi-story buildings now onthe market embody ducts at each oor where it is desired to eiect tbe airconditioning. These ducts are of relatively large cross sectionaldimension and occupy a substantial space when interposed between the oorand ceiling and are designed to conduct socalled primary air from asource of supply, usually located in the basement of the buildingthrough risers in the usual service core of the building and thenthrough such relatively large distributing ducts between the ceiling andiioor to specially designed outlet boxes usually disposed around theperiphery of the building and below the windows of the building. Theseoutlet boxes are usually provided with heating or cooling coils, and inthe operation of such systems the air within the building or within theparticular room or portion of the building in which the sill boxes arelocated is caused to circulate through the sill boxes by inductioncaused by the flow of primary air through a special orifice or device inthe sill box. In other words the prior art systems all embody at eachstory, air ducts running beneath the floor and between it and theceiling of the story below, and the successful operation of the systemdepends upon the conditioning of the air in the sillboxes and theinduction of the proper amount of air from within the room or portion ofthe building in which the sill box is located. Such an air distributionsystem in addition to the elaborate duct system and the height which iswasted by the ducts between the ceiling and the floor, as describednotonly is less eiiicient in operation but also requires the distributionof water to the individual sill boxes from a source in the service corerequiring desired in the way of liexibility and cost.

In general the present system seeks to eliminate the Waste space abovereferred to between the ceiling and the floor in a multi-story buildingwhich, as stated, is required by the ducts of prior art air conditioningsystems. This is accomplished by utilizing a cellular floor, such asthat illustrated in the United States patent to Young, above referredto, as a component of the present air conditioning and distributionsystem by which both hot and cold air or by which cool air in differentvolumes or in different degrees of conditioning, or for heating orcooling purposes may be distributed in an economical, highly flexibleand superior manner to outlets disposed not only around the periphery ofthe building but also at selected intermediate locations, and which maydischarge either into the building upwardly through suitable outletboxes or downwardly through ceiling outlets into the story next below.

Referring'to the drawings and particularly to Fig. l which illustratesin perspective a sufficient portion of one of the oors in a multi-storybuilding embodying the present air conditioning and wire distributingsystem to enable the invention to be understood, 10 represents acellular metal load supporting floor structure supported upon girders 12wherein the standard cellular unit 100 of the lloor illustrated in theYoung patent above referred to comprises four cells of similar contour,and it is preferred to erect the oor utilizing with alternate cellularunits 100 a series of units 102 having a single enlarged cell of easectional dimension such as to conduct a relatively large volume of airtherethrough. This cell unit 102 is preferably of a width equal toone-half the width of a standard unit 100 and is preferably constructedwith male and female lips 99, 101 at the margins thereof for cooperationwith corresponding lips on the margins of the standard units 100 to formthe load supporting floor.

In the preferred construction of the lloor for the embodiment in amulti-story building embodying the invention the enlarged air carryingcellular units 102 are erected in alternate relation to the standardunits. In accordance with the present invention the electrical wiringservices may and preferably will be carried through selected of thestandard cell units 100. In order that the electrical service may becarried to any desired locations or outlets in the building, crossoverducts provided with any usual type of access openings and/or serviceoutlets, not shown, may be disposed transversely of the cell units 100,102, and preferably upon the upper surface of the lioor cells, as shown.

In practice hot and cold air header ducts 80, 81 are provided forconducting volumes of hot and cold air from a supply thereof to the hotand cold air conducting cells 102 respectively. As illustrated in Fig.1, the header ducts 80, 81 may be and preferably. are disposed beneathand transversely of the cell units 100, 102, the hot air header 80extending across cell units 100 and communicating with hot air cell unit102 and the cold air header 81 extending across cell units 100, hot air.cell 102 and communicating with the cold air cell 102,

as shown.

In accordance with the present invention provision is made forinsulating the wiring cells 100 from the hot air iloor cells and alsofor insulating crossover hot air ducts from the wire carrying oor cellsto prevent excessive heating of the Wiring. In practice it is well knownthat whenever a plurality of electrical wires are confined within aconduit, in this instance a cell unit 100,

the inherent resistance of the wires to the flow of elecstantialthickness is provided between the top of each hot air conducting cell102 and the wiring crossover duct, as best shown in Figs. 1 and 3, andanother similar sheet of insulation is provided between the wiring cellsand the underlying hot air headers 80. In this manner the transmissionof heat from the hot air cells 102 and headers 80 to the wires containedin and carried by the cells 100 and crossover ducts is reduced to aminimum and liability of damage to the electrical service may besubstantially eliminated.

Hav-ing thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

In a building and air conditioning system, a cellular load supportingfloor providing a series of metal wirecarrying cells and a series ofmetal air-carrying cells disposed in a common horizontal plane andincluding separate hot and cold air-carrying cells; air dischargeoutlets communicating with said air-carrying cells; means for supplyingair to the air-carrying cells, including metal hot and cold air-carryingsupply ducts having surfaces disposed in juxtaposed relation below thesurface of and extending transversely of said air-carrying andwirecarrying cells and communicating with said hot and cold air-carryingcells, respectively; wire-carrying crossover ducts extended transverselyacross and having surfaces disposed in juxtaposed relation above theupper surface of said air and Wirecarrying cells; a concrete iloor llcovering said metal load supporting floor; thermal insulating materialinterposed between the juxtaposed surfaces of said wire-carrying cellsand said hot air supply duct, and thermal insulating material interposedbetween the juxtaposed surfaces of the hot air-carrying cells and theWire-carrying crossover ducts, whereby to minimize heat transfer fromsaid hot air supply duct to said wirecarrying cells and .from said hotair-carrying cells t0 said wire-carrying crossover ducts, thuspreventing the wire-carrying crossover ducts from acting as a path ofheat transmission between the hot air supply duct and the wire-carryingcrossover ducts.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,974,767 Clark Sept. 25, 1934 2,125,366 Young et al. Aug. 2, 19382,182,686 Young Dec. 5, 1939 2,445,197 Wiesmann July 13, 1948 2,672,749Wiesmann Mar. 23, 1954 2,741,117 Hoseason Apr. 10, 1956

